In the past, there has been a rapid evolution in computational tools to represent and analyze architectural designs. Analysis tools can be used in all stages of the design process, but they are
often only used in the final stages, where it might be too late to impact the design. This is due to the considerable time and effort typically needed to produce the analytical models required by the analysis tools. A possible solution would be to convert the digital architectural models into analytical ones, but unfortunately, this often results in errors and frequently the analytical models need to be built almost from scratch. These issues discourage architects from doing a performance-oriented exploration of their designs in the early stages of a project.
To overcome these issues, we propose Algorithmic Design and Analysis, a method for analysis that is based on adapting and extending an algorithmic-based design representation so that the modeling operations can generate the elements of the analytical model containing solely the information required by the analysis tool. Using this method, the same algorithm that produces the digital architectural model can also automatically generate analytical models for different types of analysis. Using the proposed method, there is no information loss and architects do not need additional work to perform the analysis. This encourages architects to explore several design alternatives while taking into account the design’s performance. Moreover, when architects know the set of design variations they wish to analyze beforehand, they can easily automate the analysis process.